Are both Democrats and Republicans alienating young voters?

Only 18 percent of millennials call themselves members of the GOP; more millennials are Democrats (31 percent); the most (45 percent) are Independents. When I teach college classes, I find that very few college students will admit in public to being Republican... It's time for the GOP to make itself the party of ideas again, especially when dealing with young people. There's a real opportunity for making a fact-based case for flexible, free-market, limited-government solutions to challenges important to the next generation. Let's hear about a Republican alternative to ObamaCare, about urban enterprise zones, a new tax code, school choice, and reforming Medicare and Social Security. [U.S. News]

We've become the party that will pat you on your back when you make it, but won't offer you a hand to help you get there... If we don't believe that Republicans are the 'fend for yourself' party, then it's time for us to explain why — and to show our work... Our research finds both a dismal present situation and an incredible opportunity for turning the GOP brand around. [CBS News]

[R]ather than campaigning on the mainstream Republicanism embodied by the family name, Bush says he's "a movement conservative" more in line with the tea party... As if to underscore the point, he says he draws the most inspiration not from the administrations of his grandfather, George H. W. Bush, or his uncle, George W. Bush, but from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who engineered the 1994 Republican takeover of that chamber. [AP]

Forty-five percent of 18- to 29-year-old Americans say they approve of the way Obama is handling his job; 46 percent disapprove of his job performance, according to a year-end USA Today/Pew Research Center Poll. The president's approval rating with young Americans — which stood at 67 percent just ahead of his second inauguration less than a year ago — now mirrors the general population, according to the poll... [The] findings mirror other recent polling that suggests Obama has seen his approval rating slide with young Americans. [USA Today]

The survey, part of a unique 13-year study of the attitudes of young adults, finds that America's rising generation is worried about its future, disillusioned with the U.S. political system, strongly opposed to the government's domestic surveillance apparatus, and drifting away from both major parties. "Young Americans hold the president, Congress, and the federal government in less esteem almost by the day, and the level of engagement they are having in politics are also on the decline," reads the IOP's analysis of its poll.

"Millennials are losing touch with government and its programs because they believe government is losing touch with them." [National Journal]